Exemplary embodiments relate to disk drive synchronization and, more particularly, to disk drive array synchronization via short range RF signaling.
Modern computer systems require greater amounts of memory and storage capabilities. As the typical storage needs in a file server exceed the capacity of hard disks, most file servers require multilevel disks to provide the necessary storage capacity. A disk drive storage configuration often used to provide the necessary storage capacity is a Redundant Array of Independent Drives (RAID). In a RAID configuration, a single logical storage device is formed out of multiple physical devices (typically, hard disk drives). Such arrays are the industry-standard architecture for enterprise storage and retrieval of online data.
There are a large number of differing RAID techniques (known as “levels”) with varying design goals and performance profiles. Some of the most common are RAID levels 1, 5, 10, and 0+1. In all the above cases, a single block of data is distributed across multiple physical drives. The failure of any single disk causes no data loss due to redundant storage.
In order to increase performance, data may be written to multiple disks drives roughly simultaneously. However, as disks in different drives ten to be in different relative rotational positions, the latency before accessing data may be different for each drive.